In the Space Between
by loungelizard85
Summary: After Marley finds a broken and humbled Bree, the two seem to be each other's answers to their dissastisfaction. That is, until an incident involving an indebted-to-the-wrong-people Brad crystallizes a situation that will shock not only New Directions, but McKinley High as well. MorallyAmbiguous!Marley. Dark themes. As always I own nothing. Title: The Dave Mattews BandSpace Between
1. Unwell

A/N: First things first; this is going to get very dark, very fast. Next things next; this is probably the first and likely only Marley/Bree pairing, but that doesn't make it a romance. More of a co-dependence sort of thing as Marley claims her dominance and Bree becomes addicted to being protected. Finally; there's a reason Brad is listed, and a reason why it's only after 'Puppet Master' So, enjoy:

_You are the wrecking ball, Marley. You are the wrecking ball._

Marley chanted her mantra in her head as she fought back the annoying voice that pointed out that the wrecking ball was unable to penetrate those walls in Cyrus's song. Emboldened by her ability to resist his entreaty to get back together, Marley thought back just as hard that she wasn't trying to break Jake's walls- she was just trying not to crash in to them and be dashed to pieces. Even if a wrecking ball couldn't break a wall, it most likely bounced off of one. _At least, I think that's how it works- _Marley's thoughts were interrupted by collusion with another warm body.

"Damn it." Marley instinctively kneeled to pick up the cherry red binder, a bit more hesitant, figuring it was a Cheerio's, and froze completely when she saw the name scrawled in bold, large letters.

Spelled _Bree, _not like the cheese. Marley winced and picked the three-ring as quickly as possible handing it over to the shorter girl.

"Here," she managed evenly, stiffening her spine to level a steely blue grey glare at the cheerleader. Her resolve dissolved when she saw the other's gaze marred by welled tears, barely held back. "What? I didn't bump into you _that_ hard."

Bree sniffled and grabbed the binder, muttered something that sounded like "nothing" and side stepped around her. Marley practically twirled to watch her rapidly retreating form, confused.

The next day in the choir room, Marley avoided Jake's longing stare, until she got to her chair and found from her peripheral, the boy was going to maintain his watch until she gave in and looked back. Marley decided to do one better.

Stalking over to the mildly surprised boy, who looked to be preparing for a slap or some other sudden violence a moment later, she stopped just short of his chair, having relocated her own spot to the corner- grateful that the gas leak had been fixed- aware of the wary glances of the rest of the glee club.

"What did you do to Bree?" Jake reacted as he though he _had_ been slapped.

"Wha-what?" Marley let her head tilt to the side and sighed.

"You heard me," suddenly she was tired, and regretting this, even as her curiosity lingered. "She was crying. Why?"

"We broke up?"

"So?" Marley hadn't meant to sound dismissive, but given the derisive snort from Kitty, that's how it had come across. Marley rolled her eyes. "I mean, she didn't seem to care before; it was a fling. So, why cry?" Jake shrugged.

"I don't know. Like I don't know why you would care."

"Maybe because I'm a human being," Marley responded sarcastically. "Look, just tell me you didn't do anything stupid?"

"It's a little late for that, isn't it?" Jake stared off into the front of the classroom. Feeling a lull in the conversation, and more importantly, not seeing it going anywhere, Marley retook her seat.

Really, Jake had a point- she shouldn't care. And until a day ago, Marley probably wouldn't. The only thing that was keeping her from feeling like a complete sap was that what she was feeling was empathy; people can't help but feel for a small (from Marley's self described 'skyscraper' height perspective) somber individual who looked surprisingly vulnerable when not being proactively bitchy and manipulative.

Marley Rose had discovered that Bree was not going to continue to play the antagonist, and she honestly did not like it one bit.


	2. Saints of Gold

A/N: Title is a line from _Imagine Dragons_ 'Demons' Here, we first see Marley's moral ambiguity and Kitty's…complications, I guess. Many thanks to those responding; it means a lot. Without further ado, here's chapter two:

"Why not just do what you did during the whole nativity fiasco?" Marley glanced up from her place on the edge of her bed.

"Huh?" Kitty rolled her eyes and stretched out luxuriously on the mattress, hands behind her bed.

"When you had Unique sing that _God-awful_", Kitty paused, "literally- _Love Child_ song during Christmas in order to make me take the role of The Virgin Mary. You know, reverse psychology."

"Well, actually, if you hadn't agreed…" Kitty pushed herself up to look at Marley.

"You wouldn't." Marley shrugged.

"I did feel bad, and Unique was willing if I wasn't, so… maybe. We did figure that you would take the role if you felt it was more of a duty than a privilege, though." Kitty slid back down.

"See, that's your problem. Why do you feel bad taking a role that I didn't want?"

"But you _did_ want it, and Bree _was_ crying. So, yeah, I felt bad."

"And now?"

"And now I'm confused. Bree got what she wanted, and even better; Jake wants nothing to do with her or any girl."

"Beyond a minute and a half," Kitty reminded.

"Yeah. She played devil's advocate and it worked. Shouldn't she be initiating some other part of her plan?"

"Maybe that's her endgame."

"That's it?" Kitty shrugged this time.

"We're teenagers-short attention spans, or haven't you heard?"

Marley had asked Kitty for help and the petite blond had agreed, but only because she "got to tell someone what to do and say nasty things behind Bree's back," to which Kitty had indulged frequently over the course of a half hour. Marley had just fifteen minutes; skipping her last period gym class to meet with Kitty wasn't much of a gamble as Coach Beiste, while strict, was relaxing as the year wound down and Marley's performance had been stellar given she was the second tallest girl in class and the first, Brittany, had left for MIT months ago, but she still wanted it to pay off.

"So then why has this been on my mind for the past week?"

"We're also overly dramatic and too sensitive." Marley shut her eyes in exasperation.

"How would I use reverse psychology to get Bree to talk?"

"It wasn't really reverse psychology, was it? More like emotional blackmail."

"For the nicest possible reason." Kitty didn't listen.

"Or hostage taking."

"You were not held hostage."

"No, but good taste was." Marley pulled the girl up, ushering her towards the door.

"Allow me to liberate the both of you." Kitty grinned, and Marley gazed warily as she walked her down the steps and onto her porch. "What?"

"Pushing me out the door already, after we're done? You're worse than Puckerman, Rose." Marley glared in response, earning a sheepish grin. "Too soon?"

Marley shut the door in her face.

Marley was conflicted, not only with the new problem provided by Kitty, but with her willingness and need to procure it.

_This isn't my problem and I'm pretty sure I've done everything expected of me: Break up with boyfriend; check. Resist ex-boyfriend's attempts to get back together; check. Get along with ex-boyfriend for the sake of glee club, and it's warm and fuzzy feelings which, _interjected a bitter voice in her mind, _are still shared more with Jake than they are with me; check to the infinity. No chasing after the girl who made me realize how much…_Marley looked around her second period English class and saw that no one was watching her…_bullshit, _she thought decisively, nodding to herself, _that_ _I've been spoon fed for the better part of a year._

Marley wasn't angry per se, but she was disappointed. It wasn't as though the other members of New Directions were disingenuous, but it felt as though that, besides Ryder's advances and Kitty's demi-friendship, the others drifting away from her. Unique certainly enjoyed the drama that came with her dating Jake, and Marley figured that that was due to the distraction she provided from her own troubles, and personally she was fine with being one problem that Unique's never say die attitude could conquer or at least insulate from the impacts. But without Jake, she was just Marley, unexciting and unable to help Unique with the strained daily encounters in McKinley's bathrooms or locker rooms.

Of the seniors, Blaine, Tina and Sam were itching to get out of the school that had suddenly become to small for them, and had graduation on their minds even if their plans after were hazy. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Joe and Sugar were barely there; she saw them on occasion and they were nice enough to give a small wave when their eyes met in the hall, but they had already planned on attending the same college and Sugar was investigating how to use her financial prowess, or rather her father's financial prowess to gain Rory re-admittance to the 'states' as she had come to call it in their blue moon rare interactions, likely due to frequent Skype communications late into the night. Their plans were set and the floating time line that defined this age group would make Marley a footnote in their minds soon enough.

Her misgivings with Mr. Shuester went all the way to betrayal. For all his fights against the lions of the high school, her being uncomfortable with his assignment was not one he was willing to slay. If she wanted dark and edgy, she wouldn't chose the medium of sex and spice but melancholia and brashness, which would be counterproductive in their quest to securing Nationals.

None of the older glee members would show up until Nationals or Kurt and Blaine's wedding. Santana had commercials to audition for, Rachel needed to make sure that her _Funny_ _Girl_ lead served as a vehicle to more roles as careers on Broadway Marley knew, could stall as soon as they start, and Kurt had a wedding and a rolling tumble into adulthood from _young_ adulthood- the faster he rolled, the easier the transition would be, and slowing down for a bunch of high school kids beyond the time when their collective need would summon him was not an option.

On certain days, which were no different than the others, but her thoughts would finally ended up on _him_. _You got to grow a pair, dude, _she thought in a mocking inner monologue.Out of the mouths of babes, and Finn listened. Now he was gone. Marley was not so self involved, even on her worst days, that she thought herself responsible for Finn's passing, but she certainly felt responsible, especially when coming across a postcard from the recent collegian inscribed, _"One testicle down, one to go; got 'Vintage Puckerman' here to help find the other. P.S. Hope that's not as weird as it sounds, all the best, Finn._

She felt guilty not showing it to the others, in the locker memorial and insensitive to bring in something that was addressed to her when Rachel had barely gotten out of bed. Throwing it away was out of the question. So she locked the postage in her draw and left it, something that was not supposed to be there and would look bad no matter under what circumstance the message could be discovered, but not so gruesome that people would talk about her as though it were a great big secret. She should be thankful, she remembered thinking.

That nativity scene had been one of the last times she felt like an actual member of glee club as it was supposed to be. She supposed that was because there was nowhere to go but up, but then was reminded by Kitty how the reluctant girl was conned, gently, into the role she wanted, and how that signaled both the unison of their choir and the allowed time and familiarity to build a relationship insulated in the protective circle of harmony for the sake of a shared goal. Now the challenge was almost here and Marley's connections had evaporated and yet, somehow, things were back to normal, the club still standing amidst her ruins.

Marley had been shown that her tether was not sacrosanct in the hierarchy of glee and so, subject to dismissive…dismissal. Thing was, so were every other line of security. Kitty no longer needed her and while flattering, Ryder's pursuit made her feel like a reward rather than a partner, like she had with-

_Jake. And that dynamic duo is no more, _Marley thought glumly. _Now I need to move on. _She waited, and when nothing happened her mind rejoined with, _however, there's a bit more to this, isn't there? _Marley had lost but Bree didn't win anything, or at least she didn't act like it. Glee club's villain fell apart, and Marley had no clue why. One of the certainties in high school, in her high school was that sympathies were earned, and pains were suffered quietly or otherwise shared and all that implied. So, Bree's actions not only pried her from the stereotype of vixen, but made Marley ignorant of a situation she couldn't avoid.

Marley thought about that. Specifically, _a situation she couldn't avoid. I'm guessing Jake and Bree would want to avoid it, too._ Marley had felt so isolated, she had forgot that as she were a part of this failed love triangle regardless of whether she wanted to be, they were a part of her just as much and as inevitably so. Marley felt a little naïve; despite her ceaseless thoughts, she had been under the impression, the illusion, that there was nothing she could do.

_I just have to be willing to do it. _

Marley had the uneasy sense that something along the literal lines of _making an offer they can't refuse_; or _we have ways of making you talk_, would, _should_ have followed the semi-consciousness percolating in one of the cells of her brainstorm. If Kitty had been exaggerating about the manipulation they had performed, this was far more…_direct. _And, she was acting alone-scratch that, mostly alone would be more apt. Her culpability would not be diluted in the slightest though, and she wasn't sure she wanted it to be.

Marley was proud of herself. _How many songs can you sing_ _about finding your roar or being a wrecking ball without doing something about it?_ Not giving in to what was expected of her would be a start. And playing the part of the aggrieved girlfriend would be expected. _But what wouldn't?_ And even more importantly, how would she get to it?

Marley had hoped that her abrupt ending with Kitty a day ago had not soured the shorter girl on playing her faithful assistant once again, and found her wishes realized.

"So we're gonna play the bitchy high school version of a Greek chorus?" Marley paused and then nodded.

"Bree expects something retaliatory, so we're going to give it to her." Kitty leaned against the lockers and squinted at her.

"She expects it from you, for obvious reasons."

"Yeah, well, I don't think I'm mad at her."

"Have you forgiven her?"

"If all goes as planned, then maybe things can be different. Besides, I don't really see how she fits in to that."

"I'll help you; it's where Jake saw he could fit into _her_," Kitty said, slightly exasperated.

"A-ha-ha. Because they had sex. I get it. I get that. But I was dating Jake, not Bree. I don't really care what she does. At least I didn't."

"So, now you're Saint Marley?" She shrugged.

"Maybe just Sister Marlene will do for now, Kitty" The blonde girl looked slightly taken aback and frowned deeply, obviously not expecting such a boisterous response. "It was a joke, relax."

"_A-ha-ha_," Kitty mocked. "But I was being serious. Is this about her or is this about you?"

"It's so much about her, it's spilled over. Something happened when she tried to show me up, and I want to know what made this time different than all the other times someone… you know…" Marley trailed off, lacking the words.

"Screwed you over?" Kitty offered gently, slightly hesitantly. Marley looked at her.

"Well, yeah, I guess, for lack of a better term, but, you have to know, I'm not mad. About anyone, I mean. Water under the bridge. You understand that, right Kitty?" Instead of answering, Kitty looked past her, and then turned to face the lockers.

"She's coming. You sure you want to do this?" Marley nodded quickly. Kitty gazed intently. "Alright."

Out of the corner of her peripheral Marley caught the tiniest fraction of a bare dark skinned arm, moving quickly, and picking up speed.

"She's making a break for it, if you're going to do this it has to be now." Kitty almost seemed hopeful that Marley would bow out. The brunette simply smiled.

"_In the night I hear them talk, the coldest story ever told"- _Kitty then picked up the beat,

"_Somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul"- _And then together, as Bree froze:

"_To a woman so heartless;_ _how could you be so heartless?"_

Bree lurched slightly, and from the back it almost looked like she was shivering, before running off, just managing to keep herself below a full sprint.

"Well, she's not talking yet; should I hit her with the high beams yet?"

"It's not going to be that easy. We need to keep this up, without being obvious."

"It'll probably be a good idea not to make her cry to- I don't like baring my soul to people who make me cry. It could just be a weird thing with me, but I think other people feel the same way," Kitty added sarcastically.

"She didn't cry, she just shuddered a little. Look, eventually she'll get angry, and we can get past this, bury the hatchet." Marley began to walk to class, but was still within earshot: "Or each other."

At lunch, Marley and a now reluctant Kitty sat one table behind Bree, who oddly, had taken a seat away from the Cheerios standard gathering place, although they seemed as curious as Marley and Kitty, still given that none of them had gotten up, but merely stared awkwardly it seemed that fear had paralyzed them collectively.

Kitty, having more or less excommunicated herself from the squad, was resistant for different reasons. As they sang the chorus, just loud enough to be heard over the din of the cafeteria Bree began to glare in their direction, pained though it was. Even as Kitty stared pointedly at the tall brunette, Marley merely met their target's eyes. She was distracted though, by a poke in the ribs.

"Marley. Slushy at twelve o'clock." Marley grimaced as the football player strode passed, but the ice shower never came, instead, slightly off key, the jock hummed, and even free styled a lyric as he sat down with a couple of other players and a few members of the other teams that were friendly enough with each other.

"Hey, _how can you be cold as the winter wind when it breeze yo, just remember you talking to me though." _Despite herself, Marley giggled, Kitty frowned and Bree steamed as the others at his table joined in.

"_I mean after all the things we've been through; I mean all the things we got into"_ And then another:

"_Hey yo, I know some of the things you ain't told me; hey yo I did some things but that's the old me._

Marley allowed her voice to rise up once more, even as Kitty rolled her eyes at the harmony.

"_In_ _the night I hear them talk, the coldest story ever told/ Somewhere far along this road he lost his soul, to a woman so heartless."_ All together, they sang the last part of the hook:

"_How could you be so heartless?_"

Bree looked anxious now, trapped even, but Marley wasn't stopping, even as Kitty tried to get her attention, the infectious melody having spread to the skateboarders, one of whom stalked up the aisle and pronounced:

"_How could you be so, Dr. Evil/You bringing out a side of me I don't know/I decided we wasn't gonna speak so/Why we up at 3 A.M. on the phone," _all the while stomping his feet, joined by his crew at every line break, emphasizing 'evil', 'know', 'so', and 'phone', and unbeknownst to him, causing Bree to flinch at each. Marley got to her feet to draw the song through it'd final stanza, as a bespectacled chess club member asked his primly dressed associate why a proverbial girl was angry to which the other responded that she was _hot and cold_, and even one of the Cheerios glared at an athletic boyfriend beside her incensed that he had told his friends _"that you leaving me_" and _"They say they don't see what you see in me"_

As nearly the entire lunchroom joined in, Marley rang the chorus one more time:

"_In the night I hear them talk_," A cheerio shouted, "What they say?" "_The coldest story ever told_," A jock roared, "How cold was it?" "_Somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul_," in unison they all spoke, "_To a woman so heartless"_

"_How could you be so heartless?" _They chanted. Bree cringed and shoved her way through the crowd to the exit and, simultaneously, Kitty tugged Marley down in her seat as the others guffawed and the athletic boy from earlier ducked as his now, obviously ex girlfriend hurled an apple at him. Marley realized Kitty had repeated the line.

"I think the song's over now." Her absent reply earned her an eye role from Kitty.

"I'm actually asking, _MC White-Bread_. Bree just ran out of here, and that would seem to put a damper on your plan to get her to spill." Kitty paused. "_Unless_, you just used me to get payback and needed backup."

"Since when do you care about Bree?" Marley knew how that sounded, but she was genuinely curious. Kitty nodded grimly.

"Okay, got my answer." Kitty stepped off the bench, but Marley grabbed her arm.

"Look, I need Bree to get mad, because it's easier to deal with an angry Bree than it is to deal with a skittish Bree. If I get her attention, she'll be more likely to interact, because it's on her terms." Kitty sat, taking this information in.

"What makes you the expert?" Marley glanced down. "Because of me, right?"

"I'm not comparing you and Bree, but yeah- as nice as I was to you, _could_ have been to you, it wasn't about me. It's not about me now, either. But there is a part for me, because Bree made it about spiting me, rather than just, you know, _getting_ Jake. And I'm not going to be the vengeful ex-girlfriend, I'll be the bigger person."

"And by the power of the bigger person, all things are possible, eh?" Marley sighed.

"Very funny, Kitty."

"Blaine? Is that new?"

"This? Kind of, I guess, forgot I bought it, and found the shirt in the back of my closet-"

"Anderson. Unless you want a cherry dye job, move, like, now!"

That last remark was Kitty.

Marley cringed as the ice _did_ hit her dead on this time, thrown by, in Marley's estimation, the first Cheerio to be brave enough to march into the choir room to make an assault, at least if the flabbergasted look on Mr. Schuester's face were any indication. Marley slowly wiped away the slushy as the better part of New Directions, minus Kitty, and Artie, for obvious reasons, rose to their feet, with Tina, having been on the receiving end of a slush bucket on prom night, on stage led the charge with the fiercest of battle cries.

"Oh, _hell_ no!" Artie, for his part, wheeled in back of Bree, still breathing heavily from the rapid attack, and glared. Kitty slipped out of her seat, and undid the brake on his chair, wheeling him out of the way. Marley heard his cries of indignation to which the petit girl responded, "long story".

By now the ice drink had melted into her underarms, and the cold gave way to a sticky humidity in crevices that would require a long hot shower to divest the wild cherry essence from her personhood.

"This was a warning. Back. Off," Bree growled, dropping the cup on the floor, possibly to add insult to injury, and stalked off, with Tina on her tail, stopped by Marley's damp and sticky hand.

"I've been slushied, like, dozens of times." Bree stopped and whirled around. "You're gonna have to be more specific in your warning."

"Okay, did Puckerman put you up to this?" At the mention of his surname, Jake wilted, feeling eyes on him.

"No," Marley answered definitively.

"Then what the hell? You're more Taylor Swift than Kayne West, Rose. What gives?"

"I could ask you the same question." Bree blanched.

"What?" Behind her Kitty mimed the other cheerleader with a sour expression across her face, while Artie snickered.

"You sleep with my boyfriend, rub it in my face, and then a day later you're sad and crying and running in the other direction when you see me. You tell me what happened in that day to make everything all turned around, and I won't bother you again." Marley heard the murmurs behind her and felt Jake staring, disbelieving that she was still pushing this as it dawned on the glee club that she had planned this.

"Fuck you," Bree muttered and walked out quickly, not before throwing a look of incredulity at Jake who Marley could only imagine was sporting one of exasperation, turned to shock as she jolted out after her.

"Marley-" Mr. Schuester having found his voice tried to stop her, and Marley caught Kitty's gaze, willing her the message to explain everything in her absence. Kitty nodded.

Catching sight of Bree, Marley used her longer stride to make up the difference between then and circled around to stop her.

"If you don't tell me," Marley started quickly, "I'll just keep it up." Bree cocked her head.

"_Oh, no_. Bit of advice? Update your playlist, cause your references are pathetic the second time around." She tried to sidestep around her, but Marley stood in her way.

"You're right. That's why I'll follow you around singing _Gold Digger_ next."

"You can't be serious."

Singing, or rather more of a yelled spoken version, Marley recited, "Eighteen years, Eighteen years. She got your kid got you for eighteen-"

"Shut Up!" Marley did as she was told, as tears began to spring from Bree's eyes.

"You're-you're crying," Marley spoke as reverently as though it were blood and not saline that was trickling down the other girl's face.

"You got Puckerman back, so what difference does it make?" Bree countered weakly.

"What? We're not together." Bree stared warily.

"I saw him come up to you after…after everything and beg you to take him back."

"I said no." Bree sniffled.

"Is that why he went from the sack to sad sack?"

"Um, I don't think so. He was like that before." Abruptly, Bree stepped around her.

"Here's the deal. We go to the mall, make nice. Trade info. Never bother each other again. Sound good?"

"Like right now?"

"Unless you have to get back to your precious glee club?"

"No, I don't _have_ to."

"Good. Oh, and Rose? Bring your life savings-your buying."


End file.
